Curbside Recycling Returning To Wooster

Curbside recycling will be coming back to the city, probably by February, city Administration Director Jean Baird said Wednesday, and the change will probably result in higher rates for trash pick up.

The change comes on the heels of an investigation done by the city of Canton into alleged practices by R.C. Miller Refuse Service Inc., the company the city's trash firm contracts with to recycle.

The city currently contracts Waste Management to pick up trash. Waste Management then takes the waste to R.C. Miller in Canton, where glass, paper, plastic and metal is supposed to be separated for recycling purposes. R.C. Miller, however, has not been separating recyclable material for the last several months.

The (Canton) Repository reported Sunday that the company had stopped separating glass, plastic, steel and other recyclable material from trash. R.C. Miller has been transporting all the material it receives to landfills, The Repository reported.

Baird said the city is putting a plan together for recycling, and one should be in place by February 2000.

"The details haven't been worked out," Baird said. "There will be some type of curbside pickup and there will be an increase in rates."

Wooster Mayor Jamie Howey said the rate hike might be in the neighborhood of $1 a month.

For now though, Baird said the city is in a fact-finding mission, trying to put together the best possible recycling plan.

"We are constantly meeting to get the process worked out," Baird said. "We hope for the new procedure to go into effect in February."

Howey said he visited R.C. Miller a couple years ago because he wanted to make sure they were separating the materials.

"I had my concerns it wasn't being done then," Howey said. "It was."

The city's contract with Waste Management says that whatever is collected must be recycled if possible.

Waste Management had contracted R.C. Miller to do that. Howey said Waste Management has held up their end of the deal, and it is R.C. Miller that hasn't.

Bill Sigler of Waste Management said he was surprised to find out R.C. Miller was not separating and recycling. Waste Management is working closely with all municipalities involved, though, to make sure what can be recycled is recycled, he said.